For me, the worst possible fate would be to die, come into the Light of Christ and to realize too late I had wasted my life playing games and wearing masks.
I want, no, I need, to live in reality. Tears spring to my eyes and a deep yearning stabs my heart to discover and live my destiny.
C.S Lewis wrote if we are dissatisfied with our life on earth it is because we were created for something more, something greater. We were created for heaven. We were created to live in, with and through the Holy Spirit, to live as sons and daughters of God
We have all read the experiences of saints who claimed to live in mystical union with Christ.
The image that comes to mind is of medieval saints who were morose and miserable, wearing hair shirts and living on bread and water.
However, I discovered that the claims of saints are not bogus, but true. Furthermore, that their achievements are completely realistic, and that I should expect to live joyfully in the Resurrection. The accounts of the saints might be couched in fanciful, archaic language, but they are not allegories or fairy tales.
This Resurrected Life is not for a select few; humans are wired for a life lived in and through a mystical connection to God. In fact, life in Christ is not a big deal. The experience is not just for those we label as saints; it is simply the normal Christian life.
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church,
PART THREE, LIFE IN CHRIST
1691 ”Christian, recognize your dignity and, now that you share in God\’s own nature, do not return to your former base condition by sinning. Remember who is your head and of whose body you are a member.
1695 ”sanctified… [and] called to be saints,” [1 Cor 1:2] Christians have become the temple of the Holy Spirit. [Cf. 1 Cor 6:19], having become their life, prompts them to act so as to bear \”the fruit of the Spirit” [Gal 5:22, 25] . Healing the wounds of sin, the Holy Spirit renews us interiorly through a spiritual transformation. [Cf. Eph 4:23]
It is true!
The lives of the saints are really true. If you are a secret cynic, or simply someone like me who tried to no avail to connect to God with only my own strength, why don’t you give God the permission to save you and transform you into a normal Christian? You will be surprised; ”surprised by joy”.*
*(Wordsworth, C.S. Lewis)
“Yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me; insofar as I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me and given himself up for me.” (Galatians 2:20)